Why 3 A-7 playback monitor

[LICORNE]

You probably wondered why the 1960 catalog has pictures of studios with 3 and 4 monitors?

Motion picture with 3 chanels left center right.Even a fourth for surround.



http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...pro/page02.jpg

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<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ July 27, 2008 02:15 PM: Message edited by: CONVERGENCE ]</font>

[bfish]

Sorry C-man, maybe in some parallel world, but not in the pictures you referenced. The caption for the pic of dual A7 monitors;

"...employed for dual channel monitoring of of mono or stereophonic recordings"

And while it doesn't say in the caption, the 3-monitor setup from the United Recording Studio was used to master and overdub the 3 independant tracks (left center and right) that would be recorded on film for cinema applications, to be played back on (surprise!) the 3 independant behind-the-screen (left, center and right) channels such as Cinerama, etc. Done as you suggest, the left side of the screen would play drums, the center instruments, and the right vocals...not a good recipe to sell movie tickets.

[Tom Brennan]

Stereo LPs came out in the late 1950s, 1958 I think.

[Old Guy]

Generally Les Paul is credited with inventing multitrack recording. He started with a stereo deck in the early 50's, playing back one channel and recoring it and the new track together- since become known as "ping ponging".

He hit on the idea to bea ble to do multiple tracks, so all tracks would be first generation. The first mulititracks were early "50's built by Ampex. By the date of that picture 8 tracks were in big studios.

I remember being hotshots 'cause we had the only local eigt track in 1970. Big studios were doing 16 by then.

From Wiki:

Paul's multitrack experiments progressed rapidly and in 1953 he commissioned Ampex to build the world's first eight-track reel to reel tape recorder, at his own expense. (This is not to be confused with an 8-track cartridge machine, introduced in 1965, which played in stereo.)

Ampex released the first commercial multitrack recorders in 1955, naming the process "Sel-Sync" (Selective Synchronous Recording). Coinciding the advent of full frequency range recording (FFRR), stereo and the high-fidelity microgroove vinyl LP format, multitrack recorders soon became indispensable to vocalists like Crosby and Nat "King" Cole.

[LICORNE]

I just wanted to say that the technique used then was overdubbing.

I don't know if they had headphones but a playback
on one speaker while recording on the second track
seemed OK.

The film industry used Magnetic Film tracks up to 8 of them.

But in the film industry post production you had many processes. Foley, Scoring, voice over,sound effects. Then mixed on 3 channels. Then viewed again in a small theater for final balance and EQ.

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[bfish]

Post removed as technically incorrect, potentially misleading, and possibly hazardous to reader's health. It wasn't important enough to redo.

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ July 29, 2008 12:57 AM: Message edited by: bfish ]</font>

[GM]

Les Paul/Mary Ford multi-tracking live on Omnibus: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YA_RINQySU"]YouTube - Les Paul & Mary Ford on Omnibus (7min version with jokes)[/ame]

GM

[LICORNE]

There was Cinerama They use seven channel 35mm full coat magnetic film.

http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/wide...htwwwsound.htm

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[bfish]

Originally posted by GM:
Les Paul/Mary Ford multi-tracking live on Omnibus...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Excellent! That viddie should be required viewing for any modern ProTools addicts that think their gimmicks obviate the need for talent!

[LICORNE]

Yes they should read it. Also called SEL SYNK by Ampex I had two 4 track 1/2 " tape 440-C 7.5 IPS , 15 IPS.

One of these days I'll tell you about the opera signer bride who wanted to sign at her wedding.

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